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7 Ways to market your business and attract potential customers without spending a fortune...

Guest post by: Alison Basson

Article Overview: Marketing and generating new potential customers is critical for business success, without them how are you going to make more money and grow your business. There are a lot of ways to promote your business and attract potential customers but here are some of the best no cost/low cost ways of marketing your business both online and offline.

7 Ways to market your business and attract potential customers without spending a fortune...

Marketing and generating new potential customers is critical for business success, without them how are you going to make more money and grow your business. There are a lot of ways to promote your business and attract potential customers but here are some of the best no cost/low cost ways of marketing your business both online and offline: 1. Publicity/Editorials - Press Releases

Believe it or not there is plenty of free publicity out there where the media can talk about your business in a positive light. It needs to be newsworthy; if not it will not get printed, so make it interesting for people to read not just a product/service plug. To potential customers this form of promotion carries more weight - it is very credible. Once you have a press release you can submit it to the relevant journalists.

2. Capture Devices - Free E-books and Special Reports

A capture device is something that draws potential customers to your business, whether by phone, mail, store or website. The idea is to give them something for FREE, like a free e-book so that you can obtain their contact details and then promote to them at a later date.

3. Article Writing

Writing high quality, informative articles is a great way of establishing yourself as an expert in your field and getting exposure for your business, all for free. The most useful information you give, the more trust you will build with your readers and the more potential customers you will obtain. The more articles you write the more exposure you will get. You can submit these to online article directories, blogs, and other people websites and to offline magazines, newspapers, journals etc.

4. Other Businesses Newsletters

This is a great way to promote your business to a new group of potential customers for FREE or at minimal cost. You can run a competition, give special offers or write an article, swap space in each other's newsletters. Make sure you include a good offer or call to action to get people to take action.

5. Referrals/Word of Mouth

A happy customer will promote your business by word of mouth to other people for little or no cost. A recommendation is a far more powerful thing than advertising and generally people who have been referred will turn into loyal customers. You can encourage referrals by offering a referral program to your customers.

6. Networking

There are plenty of places to network now-a-days, from online forums and social networking sites to attending networking events and collecting business cards. It is a good idea to combine both online and offline networking because ever though online networking will allow you to connect with more people in less time, offline networking will allow you to meet people face to face. Networking is all about building relationships and getting your name out there. Remember to follow up on the contacts you make otherwise you will just be wasting your time.

7. Strategic Alliances

This is where you build relationships with complementary businesses and help to promote each other. Make sure that both businesses and the customers benefit. You can identify some good partners by looking in similar places that you advertise. For example, an accountant/bookkeeper and a financial broker who targets small businesses is a good alliance or businesses that target children like a children's cloth shop, a children's books business, and a gift store for children would all work well together.

Always remember to collect as many people's details as you can for your database otherwise you will be wasting your time and money as this is a great way of being able to promote to them in the future at no cost.

As you can see you don't have to spend a fortune to market your business and attract potential customers to your business. All you need are proven marketing strategies that actually work.

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Article Tags: business success, contact details, e book, editorials, free e books, free publicity, informative articles, journalists, journals, magazines, mail store, money, newspapers, phone mail, press release, special offers, swap space



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